Russian delegation arrives in Pakistan for three-day talks on pipeline project

This undated photo shows Bin Qasim Power Station (BQPS-II) in the eastern area of Pakistan's coastal city Karachi, Pakistan. (REUTERS)

• The North-South project, estimated to cost over $2 billion, will deliver gas from Pakistan’s coastal regions to industrial areas in the north 
• Pipeline has been held up since 2015 due to disagreement over fees and US sanctions against Russian state conglomerate Rostec 

KARACHI: Pakistan and Russia on Monday began three-day-long negotiations to finalize an agreement to start work on the over $2 billion North-South Gas Pipeline Project (NSGPP), a Pakistani energy ministry official said.
The agreement will be the latest in a series of energy-related pacts between Pakistan and Russia, former Cold War foes who have grown closer in recent years.
The North-South pipeline to deliver gas from Pakistan’s coastal regions to industrial areas in the north has been held up since 2015 due to a disagreement over fees and United States sanctions against Russian state conglomerate Rostec.
An official at the Pakistani energy ministry’s petroleum division confirmed to Arab News on Monday that the visiting Russian delegation had arrived. It will remain in Pakistani until November 18 for wide ranging talks on the pipeline project.
Last week, Sajid Mehmood Qazi, the spokesman of Pakistan’s Ministry of Energy, told Arab News that discussions with Russia were at an “advanced stage” and Pakistan hoped that an inter-governmental agreement would “materialize” soon.
The cost of the 1,100-kilometer-long project was initially estimated at $2 billion, with an annual capacity to transport 12.4 billion cubic feet of gas from Karachi in the north of the country to Lahore in the south. 
The energy ministry spokesman had declined to share the exact cost of the project, saying the design of the pipeline had changed since it was first conceived.
“It is now not the pipeline which was initially designed, with 42 inches diameter,” Qazi had said. “Now it would be 48 or 56 inches and according to the new estimates of its compressor size and technical requirements, its cost could be anything between $2 and $3 billion ... but I can’t say exactly about it at this stage”.
The energy ministry spokesman said the government was eager to “make progress” on the project before the next year.
Indigenous natural gas contributes around 38 percent to Pakistan’s total primary energy supply mix. Pakistan produces around 4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) against an unconstrained demand of 6 bcfd and imports gas to meet the deficit, particularly when demand peaks in winters.
The North-South pipeline would be the biggest infrastructure deal with Russia since the early 1970s, when the Soviet Union set up the Pakistan Steel Mills industrial complex at Port Qasim, near Karachi.
Apart from the North-South pipeline project, Pakistani officials also say work is being expedited on the multibillion-dollar Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project to import gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan up to Pakistan’s border with India.